Saturday, November 29, 2008

Assemblies at St. Margaret's

Almost every week at St. Margaret's, the different schools have assemblies in which girls present performances. Here is a sample from last Wednesday's. The first video is of two segundo basico classes performing the Cirque du Soliel's Alegria for the infant school. This performance has had a lot of demand. They first performed it for junior school, then for the high school, and, finally, for the littlest girls. These girls choreographed it themselves. You'll get a glimpse of the jugglers and the chorus, the girl on roller skates and the one on stilts. Clowns threw confetti at the audience. The main ballerina has been dancing for less than a year.


They're learning gymnastics at school and the corridors and play areas have been full of cartwheels and flips. There have been a lot of casts for broken bones and splints on fingers lately, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal. There is a concrete stage and a concrete play area. Girls run across the stage, land on their hands and then do a back flip landing on the play area. My heart is in my throat as I watch, but their doing this seems to be an accepted part of the school culture.

The next group of girls, the little Charlie Chaplins, are kindergartners from the Infant School. I've mentioned the "History of Hollywood" show that the Infant School put on in an earlier blog. I think these are the same girls who were Charlie Chaplin in that assembly. Too cute to only perform once.



And . . . Miss Carmen, one of our wonderful Junior School librarians, was the director of this performace: The Pied Piper of Hameln (the German spelling), presented just as the news that rats have recently invaded the town hit the news. The performers were from Miss Graciela's cuatro basico class and Miss Sonia's primero basicos were the children and the rats.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Election Watch: Chileno Style


This is our neighbor Boni on the evening of the election. He and Sandra invited us to their house to watch CNN as we don't have a TV. He taped the sign to his forehead, and it was still there when we left two hours later. Chileans were ecstatic over the election; at school the next day I was given many hugs and kisses. Everyone was smiling, and many of the teachers had stayed up for most of the night to watch Obama's speech.

This newspaper is a left-wing periodical. The headline says Defiance to Racism.



Chile's presidential election is in approximately a year and a half. Michelle Bachelet, Chile's current president, is a moderate socialist who believes in free market policies. Her father, a general, served under Allende in a food distribution program. Her parents and she were tortured under Pinochet, her father died from cardiac arrest while he was held prisoner. Bachelet's popularity is very low at this time. There have been scandals in missing funds in both education and a government sponsored sports program. People I've met, both wealthy and the not-so-wealthy, feel the government is too lax in handing out stiffer sentences for criminals. I've heard nostalgia for the "good old days of Pinochet," and that Pinochet "saved Chile" has been told to me more than once . . . even by a young woman whose grandfather was killed by his thugs. Our mouths drop open when we hear this type of thing. People are very careful in saying much about this era, as family members were killed and injustice done to both sides. The distrust is still here.

We've talked to people whose family farms that had been in the family for generations were taken away under Allende and "destroyed because no one knew how to take care of them." We've been told that people here were beginning to starve and that Chile was on the brink of civil war when Pinochet's coup occurred. We say in response that stability isn't worth tyranny, that both sides of the government, the left and the right, should work together to make Chile a better place instead of spending energy blocking each other's attempts to improve situations. (Of course that can be said of a certain country to the north).

Hopes are so impossibly high on Obama, but perhaps with his election, and because problems are so serious, the United States could be a real leader in having each side of the government thinking first about the country and partisanship last. Perhaps the joy expressed about Obama's election here, and in other nations, will create an opening for acceptance by the rich and powerful to allow for justice and for equality to become more pervasive. Maybe there's a young Obama in Chile, a Mapuche boy, or a girl from the slums of Santiago, who will one day help the nation step out of its past wounds and begin a new era for the nation.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Elvis Found Singing in a Small Club in Chile

My husband and I went back to El Gato en La Ventana last night. To our surprise, Elvis walked in, began to perform, and had the whole place on its feet.

There were a couple of other performances. Here's one song of a group, though I'm sorry to say I don't know what they're called. At one point, the mother of one of the members came up to the stage and sang a couple of songs.

Finally, this is Rosemary, one of the music teachers from St. Margaret's, and her daughter Blanca at our home.